Fateful Protector
by Phoenix To Flame
Summary: To be alone, is often to be lonely. But two is more than one, and it is anything but lonely to be together.


So anyone who's read my old crappy fics, knows that I haven't posted any Naruto fanfiction since 2007. This fact is not likely to change after this one. I've largely lost interest in the story itself and really don't want to come back, since I enjoy it much more where I am now.

However, my dear brother, who posted his own first story today, has asked me a lot to write with him. And because I love him, I have done so, working with my first original character, who has grown in many ways since she was first dreamed up, and I have written this. I am proud of it, and of my character. I feel that since my first days posting here, that her change is mine. I'd actually appreciate it if I got feedback on her characterization, just to tell me whether or not I can pull it off at all. After all, I won't be coming back. It is essentially my farewell.

So even if you don't like OCs, or you feel annoyed that I'm not posting something that fits with the current themes running through this, I'd _love_ it if you told me what you honestly thought. Even if it's just a two word sentence telling me I rock, or suck, it is still honesty.

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><p>Another regular afternoon for Uchiha Kisara, kunoichi in training, even if she wasn't very good as a kunoichi yet, or even an Uchiha. Her morning consisted of ignoring those who mocked her for her name, her half-bloodness, her looks, her anything they could get their hands on, attempting to avoid her mother, and practicing her ninja skills.<p>

She thrust an open-hand punch at the air, like she'd seen the Hyuuga twins doing, frowned and tried to shift her feet to be more like theirs. It felt awkward, but she thought it looked right. She tried the punch again and almost fell over.

_'Well that can't be right!' _she thought in annoyance. _'I'm going to have to watch them again. I _have_ to learn these movements!'_

She already had enough trouble with people without failing at things she should have been able to get. She shifted into the beginning stance again, and frowned when she almost fell over in shifting into the punch.

She felt eyes on her, and looked up to see another young ninja in training, like her, but male. He ran off before she could do anything, bag clinking with concealed bottles as he moved into the shadows of the forest.

Kisara recognized him from many encounters where she would notice him watching her, and fleeing every time she made a motion to glace at him.

Curiosity became very present, and she slipped out of the position, to follow him.

The boy walked into the woods, further than the training grounds, and she wondered where he was going, using chakra to soften the sounds of her feet as she followed along in his footprints.

He stopped in a clearing, with a stream burbling through it, and a lot of small purple flowers growing on burgundy-spotted stalks, and set the bag down, kneeling on the earth to pull bottles out of it. Kisara crept closer, enough to see that they were labeled and organized, even by the way that he pulled them out.

She watched as he began to cut the flowers from the stems, slipping them into a jar, watched from behind a tree.

When he turned, as if he felt that someone was looking at him, she jumped back, stomping down on her chakra that she had been using to stay quiet, and held still till the sound of a knife slicing through plants started up again.

_'I wonder if he let me learn what he's doing.'_ she thought, and slid forwards along the ground, not setting her feet till she was certain that he wouldn't move.

One of the containers fell over onto the ground, almost spilling its contents. She cautiously continued to walk closer, and picked it up. "Plantain Leaves, Good For Bee Stings and Burns" the jar read in neat printing.

The boy shifted, and she bolted into the shadows, calling up a minor genjutsu to conceal her. It was only as she hid there, hardly daring to breath that she realized that she still was holding onto the jar.

He didn't seem to notice her, but he started to count the jars, sealing up the one he had been working with, when he noticed that he was short one. Then he started to look around, parting the plants and feeling about as if it were small enough to vanish into the foliage.

She carefully placed it onto a tree root, and started to creep back away, intending to go on watching him from afar.

He must have heard the clink of glass on wood, he looked up and saw it.

Then he sprang to his feet, and spun around the clearing, panic filling his eyes. "Hey! Who's there?" he called, as if the trees could answer him.

Kisara tried to back off again, and accidentally bent the grass where he was looking. Immediately, his eyes narrowed and he grabbed for a pouch hanging at his waist. She prepared for either a kunai or shurikan to come rocketing her way, but instead he chucked a smoke bomb at the ground where she had been._. _

Her genjutsu wobbled, and she was quite certain he'd seen her before she managed to get it under control. But she started to giggle as his reaction was to stare comically in dismay at the space, before remembering she was supposed to be quiet and she clapped a hand over her mouth.

A look of irritation filled his face, and he clasped his fingers together in the position for Tiger, a faint blue glow gathering around him before blowing it out into the area.

Astonishingly, her genjutsu faded and she, instead of running like she planned, found herself giggling from the completely wrong look of dismay on his face.

The boy continued to stare at her, looking utterly baffled. "W-why are you messing with me?" he stammered out.

Kisara stood up from her crouch, and placed her hands firmly on her hips, glaring at him with hazel eyes. "Why do you watch me?" she asked with more intensity than he seemed to be able to summon. "Who are you so interested in what I do?" _'Why do you always run away when I want to talk to you.'_ she added on in her thoughts.

He stood there, looking flabbergasted and unable to speak. She waited, and waited, and got fed up with waiting, stomping over with all of her short intensity to poke him in the side till he looked at her. "Well? Tell me why."

He looked at her with soft dark eyes and smiled gently. "I was curious, you're much more dedicated than most of the others around."

Oh.

So he thought that she tried harder than the numbskulls that spent their time picking on her?

He seemed to be expecting an answer, and she pulled a smirk to her face. "I was curious too." that was the utter truth. "You're so uptight that pranking you is fun." that was not really the truth, her 'pranking' had been curiosity and fear packed into a ball. "Or at least I thought it would be." she said, her voice tilting down into dejection. He probably wasn't going to like her now. "But I wasn't, I just felt bad." and that was more truth right there.

He looked at her with sad eyes for a moment, and she wondered if he was disillusioned of what kind of person she was, but then he lit up. He grabbed up his bag and started digging through it. "I think I might have something that will cheer you up." he explained as he pulled out a tall glass case with a flower enclosed within. It stood tall with a dark stem, and the flower was purple with green swirling in it. It was beautiful. He looked at her anxiously, and after a moment, he asked. "What do you think of this flower?"

Kisara stared at it in abject fascination, admiring the way that the purple seemed to change color as sunlight slid over the trees, leaving dappled leaf prints on everything. "It's psychedelic." she said at last, tilting her head to look at the unusual patterns on it. "What is it?" she continued.

The concern in his eyes melted to interest, and he practically jumped to explain. "I don't know what it's called. I found it a day or so ago, and I've been carefully studying it. From where I found it, I assume it's from a very tough and determined species of flora." He had a bright smile, like the late afternoon sunlight from above. "I think you and the flower are very alike."

When she reached out to touch the case, he actually _handed_ it to her. "Be gentle. And don't open it, please." he said as he let go of it, leaving it cradled in her hands."

She took the flower cautiously, the glass wobbling in her hold from nervousness. "Are you going to name it? Mama names all of her plants, and takes care of them." if you could call her buying them and leaving them in a dark place with no water until they all died pitifully, abandoning the dirt in a search for life. "They're all flat and brown in the pot, but that's not right, is it?" The girl held the flower with a desire, a want to protect it. "It's so pretty"

It really was, shining and looking healthy despite being enclosed in glass. Much prettier than most of the flowers in Konoha.

She turned it around and around in her hands, taking in every detail. "I never really thought about naming it." the boy said to her surprise, and she saw him sitting on the ground, watching her with a protectiveness in _his_ eyes. Like he thought already that she was worth something. "I might." he finished with a light grin.

She hesitantly smiled back at him, continuing to look at the flower, and through the circular glass at him.

"How about your name? I'll name it after you, I don't really have any friends anyway, so how about it? Want a flower named after you?" he continued, looking at her with gentleness.

The idea was nice, but then she scowled, remembering taunts. "Who'd like a flower named after _dishes_?" Then she realized that he would probably think her name funny too. "Who'd like a _girl_ named after dishes?" she asked sadly. Kisara walked over, still holding the flower gingerly, and tried to give it back to him. "Everyone laughs at my name." she said bitterly. "You'd probably laugh too."

He smiled at her, the kind of smile that she'd always imagined a big brother would give her, and something in her felt reassured.

That part grew when he refused to take the flower. "Am I laughing?" he said, a quiet certainty in his voice.

She wanted to, but she wasn't sure if she trusted him yet. "You will. Everyone does."

Something grew solemn in his expression, and he looked at the flower, hovering in her grasp, a symbol of...something to come. Maybe. "How about a deal, Kisara?" he said with that same certainty. "I didn't mess up your name, I hope?"

Her trains of thought abruptly ground to a halt and she gaped at him. "You know my _name_?" she asked, completely and utterly dumbfounded.

His reaction was to blush and look down at the ground, fiddling awkwardly with one of the plants around his feet. "W-well yeah..." he said quietly. "I...may have heard your name spoken one time when I was watching you from a b-bit closer than usual!" the words came out in a stammering rush.

Kisara's first reaction was to be annoyed that he had been snooping, then suddenly scared of _when_ this might have been, and why. He seemed nice, but maybe he really wasn't. She didn't want to believe in that possibility, but it was there. "When was this? Tell me!"

The words came out louder than intended and her mother's voice rang in her head. _"You must never, _ever_ yell, Kisara. Even if you are in pain, or trapped in a fight you don't think you can handle, you do not yell. No shinobi yells."_ Her hands were shaking around the flower holder and she tried to not drop it. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell." she said in a very small voice, scared that he was going to hit her for raising her voice.

No shinobi was supposed to raise their voice.

She was surprised when he didn't immediately hit her with something, and instead said in that quiet voice, "I-I was using a cloaking jutsu to get closer, one time when you were talking to yourself and training." But instead of getting closer, or taking the flower or anything, he shrank back, and started to put away the bottles and the knife in the bag. "But you don't need to apologize. It's alright."

The sadness in his eyes reminded Kisara of herself, looking at her reflection in a pool or a mirror after yet again being put down. "I was hoping we could be friends." he said, reaching up for the flower she held. "But if you don't want to, that's fine."

Something warm lit up in her chest as she heard the words 'We could be friends' and all the fear vanished, all the anger, all the sadness. "You want to be...my friend? Really?" she asked him, smiling, turning it towards the flower.

Something raw came out in her voice. "I want a friend."

He smiled at her, the expression nothing less than gentle and happy. He stood up, and instead of taking the flower away, laid his hand on the case. "Yes, I do want to be your friend." and he pushed the flower, lightly so that she didn't drop it, but still insistently towards her. "And I hope you'll take this flower and care for it, since it has the same name as you." he winked.

Kisara grinned in happiness, carefully hugging the flower to her chest. "But we can't just name it after _me_!" she exclaimed as the thought came to mind. "Since you found it, we can call it...uh..." she trailed off as she realized her idea wouldn't work, just yet. "Idontknowyournameniceperson" she said very quickly, to try and not offend him.

But he only laughed, reaching out to ruffle her dark hair. "I'm sorry," he said with feeling. "I never did introduce myself. My name is Mamoru Yuuto."

The name fit him ridiculously well, 'Gentle Protector' in_deed_. "I'm Uchiha Kisara," she introduced herself in return, to be polite. Then she smiled up at him happily. "We should call it Yuuki then. Let's call it that." And she hugged the flower delicately, now a symbol of her first friend.

He knelt down to pick up his pack, closing it and tying off the drawstring. "I like it," he said as he stood up, swinging it effortlessly onto his back. "It's getting late, I need to be heading home soon." he explained. "Wanna help me pick herbs tomorrow?" he asked her.

As if she needed to be asked to want and go do something with him! She nodded enthusiastically, "Yes! What time do we leave? Will there be anyone else there? What are we going to pick?" she asked excitedly, rolling onto the balls of her feet in bright energy, although she was careful to not drop the flower.

"You sure are excited," he said in amusement, fond amusement. "I'll answer your questions tomorrow, I'll meet you after your classes get out. But I've got to go home and get some sleep."

She nodded, it made sense if he was getting up earlier that he would be tired now, and she walked with him to the edge of the training grounds, before he turned in a different direction. "My home's this way," he explained to her when they stopped. When he started to walk that way, he waved at her, a farewell. "Bye Kisara." he said, "I'm glad I met you, and I'll see you tomorrow!"

She stood in the same place as she watched him go, one hand raised in a waving farewell, till well after he vanished into the oncoming night, then turned towards home herself, cradling the flower in her arms.

"I'm looking forwards to tomorrow." she said to the plant, though she wasn't expecting a reply. "Then I can see Yuuto again."

The warmth in her heart swelled as she thought of her new friend, walking down a sunset lit road that no longer seemed lonely.

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><p>Goodbye Naruto fandom. I was happy when I first entered you, you drew me out of my shell from moving, brought me into a world that I don't regret finding for one bit. But I have grown in a different way than you, and so this is where our paths split.<p>

So farewell.


End file.
